Burden's of Old
by loaned
Summary: Naruto And Aang. Two boys burdened by the weight of their worlds without a choice. What would happen if fate decided to lend a helping hand to them? A:TLA:NAruto cross.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- Don't own Naruto, don't own A:TLA. Do own my soul though...right?

What was love?

Naruto had oft thought of the topic that he felt was so completely out of reach, yet so obstinately close that he could brush his fingertips against it. For as long as he could remember, the question would appear to him, day or night, sleeping or awake, winter or summer, three years old or eight. All he ever knew about it was that the thought constantly plagued him.

It was the reason why he would always look at the families with eyes of envy and sadness when he knew no one was looking. Not that many would spare the local demon a glance anyway but...just in case, ya know. It was also the reason why, at age nine, when the Sandaime stopped by at Naruto's place for tea and his usual 'check up' on Naruto that he popped the question.

Looking up at the shriveled old Sandaime while boiling water for their tea, he squinted the Hokage in thought and bellowed, "Oi, Oyajii!"

Sarutobi looked down at the little boy with a crinkled smile and said, "Yes Naruto?"

Naruto grumbled a little as the Sandaime ruffled his head and asked in an innocently deceptive tone, "What's love, Oyaji?"

Sandaime's eyes widened and his mouthed opened in slight awe of the simple, yet volatile question that Naruto had just laid before him. Wondering how to respond to the question, Sandaime opened and closed him mouth a few times before finally deciding on the right course of action...or at least something that wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass. Surely he could escape this with both of them coming out unscathed right?

"Well Naruto, love is like...um...well, what do you feel for village?"

Naruto grumbled and felt a feeling not unlike getting punched in the nose and and almost breaking it. Sure it felt weird and kinda good, but then it always hurt later on.

Sarutobi knew that he used the wrong example for Naruto when he saw his face squish into a sort of sick grimace.

Quickly searching for another example, Sarutobi snapped his mental fingers as his face set into a smile as he said well Naruto, how about Sakura-chan?"

Naruto quickly blushed and waved his arms around in a frantic manner, screaming in his high pitched young voice, "W-What you mean by that Oyaji-teme! I don't l-love Sakura-chan! Ha, Ha ha ha, heh..."

After the initial shock of the outburst and cleaning of his ears, Sarutobi looked to the young boy and heaving a mental sigh, said, "Well, what do you feel for me Naruto?"

Naruto's face finally relaxed and fell into a thoughtful look as he unsurely said, "For...for you Oyaji?"

Sarutobi nodded at Naruto and giving him a nod said, "For me, Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled slightly as he looked at the old man and said, "Well, Oyajii, I get this funny feeling in my gut that says you're a nice person who won't hurt me...is this love Oyaji?"

Sarutobi smiled sadly as he looked at the young boy and whispered to him, "Something like it Naruto, something like it..."

-0-0-

What was love?

Aang had oft thought of the topic that he felt was so completely out of reach, yet so obstinately close that he could brush his fingertips against it. For as long as he could remember, the question would appear to him, day or night, sleeping or awake, winter or summer, three years old or eight. All he ever knew about it was that the thought constantly plagued him.

It was the reason why he would always look at the visiting monks families with envy and sadness when he knew no one was looking. He always had to be careful though, because the monks would always keep a close eye on him, no matter what he was doing. Even when he was alone and definitely knew so, he would check. Ya know...just to be safe.

And so one day, when he knew he was going to be training with Gyatso, his favorite teacher and most trusted one, a nine year old Aang decided to pop the question.

"Monk Gyatso?"

Monk Gyatso looked away from the oven in which he was cooking his nefarious 'air bomb' cakes to give Aang all of his undivided attention.

"Yes Aang?", the old monk asked kindly.

Aang sighed, and, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, asked, "Monk Gyatso...what's...love?"

The old monk's eyes widened slightly before they fell back to their usual folds and he smiled slightly, giving way to a chuckle that came up at the question.

Aang scowled at the old monk, thinking he was laughing at him, and huffed, turning away from the old monk and saying, "I don't see what's so funny, Gyatso!"

The old monk slowly ended his chuckle and, putting a wizened old hand on Aang's shoulder said, "No Aang, it's not that it's funny, it's just unexpected, that's all."

Aang slowly turned around, and, putting a pout on his face replied with, "It still wasn't very nice."

The old monk squeezed the Avatar's shoulder and said, "I know Aang, I'm sorry...am I forgiven for an old man folly?"

Aang sighed and, smiling said, "Of course, Gyatso!"

Gyatso let go of Aang shoulders and, taking a breath, said, "So, Aang...You wish to know what love is?"

Aang nodded his head unsurely, with a look of slight hesitance on his face showing his true understanding of the topic; nothing.

Gyatso patted the ledge behind him for Aang to sit and become comfortable, giving the hint that the talk might take a while.

Gyatso started the complicated talk with one, simple question.

"What do you feel whenever you airbend Aang?"

Aang, took a moment to think about it before he responded, making sure that he could adequately describe it to the old monk.

"Well", started Aang, "Whenever I bend air, I always get this funny feeling in my gut, like there are butterfly's in it or something. And every time I fly, I feel like nothing else in the world matters; just me and the air in front of me, waiting to be flown!"

Gyatso smiled warmly at the child and asked one more simple question.

"And what do you feel for me Aang?"

Aang was quiet for a minute and, coming upon a startling realization, said, "For you, Gyatso?"

The old monk nodded encouragingly and said, "For me Aang."  
Aang stumbled over the words in his head until, finally, he looked to the old air bender and said, "I think I feel...the same for you. Is that what love means Gyatso?"

The old monk felt a warm feeling spread through his being as heard those words and, smiling, said, "Yes Aang, love is something like that."

Neither boy knew it, but hearing these answers from the two ill fated children, fate had decided to intervene. Intertwine their lives in their greatest adventure soon to come, both boys would truly find the meaning of love. Whether it be in others, or themselves.

TBC...

A/N: Just a quick thing before I continue. **Ahem**... this story is **_NOT YOAI_**! There...I said it. Enjoy the show!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last air bender...too bad.

Naruto winced as he felt the cut on his scalp, gifted to him courtesy of one blind Earth village drunkard and his Shinobi friend. Apparently, they didn't like Konoha shinobi, like just about every other nation out there. Sighing, he slowly brought out one of the few treasures he owned and gently unscrewed the cap on it, spreading it's pleasurable ache all over the cut in as little amount as he could. Healing salve like this was hard to come by after all, even if it _was_ common.

For some reason though, the Kyuubi would always reject the damn medicine, boiling it away as if it was a _poison_ or something. Sure, he had bought it off a shady vendor, but the guy promised him it wouldn't hurt him, only heal, and Uzumaki Naruto knew that no one would lie when they gave their word! No one!

Grabbing a nearby rag frustradedly, Naruto rubbed the now useless salve from his head and grumbled about the baka fox, only getting a growl in his mind and a stomach ache in response.

Cursing the damned fox again, Naruto rolled back onto his bed and looked out his earth-stained window wondering...what would happen tomorrows? It had been at least a year since Sasuke had left, nearly a year since Sakura had started her training and nearly a year since he had left to travel and train with ero-sannin. Life sure had changed for all of them but...

Naruto had the strangest feeling then, thinking back on all of the times he had shared with his team and nostalgia overtook him before he knew it.

Wishing for those younger, more innocent days, Naruto thought to himself, 'Ya know, it's too bad we can't go back to times like that, I really miss calling Sasuke what he truly is...a stupid teme.'

And with that, Naruto fell into an easy sleep, dreaming of the old days of his Sakura-chan pummeling him for asking for a date and Sasuke ignoring them, simply waiting for Kakashi-sensei to arrive with another hair brained excuse.

What Naruto didn't notice was the winking star, far in the distance smiling down at the young boy and deciding to tip the scales in his favor...just for this once though.

-0-0-

Sakura looked out at the night sky and twitched her sore muscles, tired and half past dead from the hard day's workout that Tsunade had given her. Sighing, she fell into her pillow with a silent _wumph_ and a cacophony of groans resounding from the old spring mattress, making her want the sleep more and more. Sighing, she looked out at the first harvest moon of the year and, suddenly, found memories unbidden of a certain blond haired prankster enter her mind.

_'Naruto...Sasuke...'_

She thought back to when Naruto would ask for a date and she would throttle him until he was only a heap of smoking meat, and then she would ask Sasuke for a date and he would just ignore her like usual, waiting for their perverted but good natured sensei.

Then she thought about all the times that followed, from the life altering fight at the bridge to the forest of death, when they were ambushed by Orochimaru. To the fight on the hospital roof to the constant bickering and arguing all leading up to the climactic battle at the valley of the end.

_'When did it all go wrong?' _she wondered. _'When did it all go so horribly wrong?'_

Tossing in her bed angrily, she looked at her bedroom wall in silent frustration at the events and then rolled over, once again looking at the deep orange harvest moon.

Anger was soon replaced by weathered sadness as she stared longingly at the orange moon in the black folds of the the night sky, wondering the about the simple question she had been asking herself since she had started training with Tsunade.

"What would it be like if Sasuke hadn't left Konoha...and me?"

Falling into a fitful and worried sleep, she had no idea of the little star twinkling in the distance, listening to every word and smiling down on her, more than ready to give her an answer.

-0-0-

Sasuke fell onto his plain and moth eaten cot in Otogakure and sighed, wondering for the umpteenth time why he had left Konoha for _this._

For the constant beatings, the training, the slow but methodical loss of his humanity, and the psychological rapes and reformation attempts by the Sannin, and then he remembered.

_'Brother...'_

He had to avenge his clan...his family...he couldn't stop just because he got a bruise and a welt here and there. He couldn't stop over childish qualms, no, not when Itachi was still alive and breathing. He could only stop when his brother, his aniki was dead.

Suddenly, a pink cherry blossom fell through the door slot in his room and giggling was heard as a single pair of footsteps ran from the door.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke opened his door to see a _definitely_ female shape run around the corner and dissapear.

_'Fangirls,'_ he thought, _'even in a barely formed hidden village I have them!'_

Picking up the Lotus, he fingered the soft petals of the pink flora and snorted, wondering why he was playing with such a petty and fragile thing.

Snorting, he felt compelled to destroy the colorful monstrosity that had invaded his drab and gray colored room just to be done with and so he did...or at least tried to.

Looking down, he saw his hand twitching, but not crushing the tiny insignificant flower.

_'Why? Why can't I kill such a simple and frivolous thing?'_

Sasuke looked at the flower and willed, no, ordered his body to crush the pink menace. Yet his body betrayed him, instead deciding to close his fist around the tiny lotus to save it.

_'Why? Why can't I CRUSH YOU! I did it once when I left Konoha and I can do it aga-'_

All his mental ramblings were cut short as he realized just what exactly he was about to say.

_'Why?', _he wondered yet again, sitting down on his cot and glaring, _'Why can't I forget about...you?'_

Sasuke glared at the little Sakura blossom and sighed, simply thinking about his time spent with the young Kuonichi.

Letting a sigh laced with sadness and longing escape his mouth, the second to last Uchiha laid down on his cot and closed his eyes, laying the pink blossom on his chest and inhaling it's intoxicating and familiar scent.

For one moment in his short yet abused life, Sasuke felt true loneliness in his life and wondered, _'What...what would it have been like if I had stayed in Konoha with...my friends?'_

Falling into a fitful and nostalgic-like sleep, Sasuke would never see the little star winking at him in the distance, even _if_ his room had a window. Nor would he know of it's secretive little smile as it decided to tip the scales of luck in his favor, for he deserved some after his short, but torturous life.

-0-0-

Aang looked away from the fire lighting up the night and sighed, wondering how his life could have ended up like...this. He had somehow ended up from leading a normal, happy life, to a fast and hectic life.

Rolling over, he pulled out the three practice marbles from his pocket and began twirling them in their fast, but soothing pattern. Despite popular opinion, this trick took a _lot_ of skill and time to do correctly, but hey. He wasn't a master air bender for no reason right?

_'airbending...airbenders...air...'_

_Aang's_ thoughts slowly drifted towards the air temple and all of his old friends...his family.

Wanting more than anything now to have someone who he could relate to, Aang looked up to the stars asking...no, _wishing_ for someone to relate to. Someone who knew the burden of having the fate of the world on their shoulders and the expectations of everyone they knew and didn't know pushing him further and further along on his path to confront the his inevitable enemy. Ozai, the firelord.

And then, as Aang finished his thought, he swore he could see a star wink at him in the distance. Blinking his eyes, he looked back to the see that the star had gone, leaving him wondering if he had even seen it all.

Shrugging his shoulders, he rolled over and burrowed into his sleeping bag, knowing that tomorrow would be an interesting day.

What an understatement.

A/N: Well, sorry! I've been caught up in my MA. Anyway, From here on out, the action picks up and so will the length, now that I've set up the whole intro. So from here, enjoy! And anyone interested, I've got a Martial arts forum up, check it out if you're interested!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I don't own Avatar the last airbender or Naruto. Now, get on to reading the story.

Sasuke blearily opened his eyes and just as quickly squeezed them shut at the unnacustomed light.

...wait, light?

Jumping up, Sasuke scanned the area surrounding him using the skills Orochimaru beat into him and made three very important observations.

He was in a forest, surrounded by trees on all sides and feet smothered in what seemed to be looses dirt and dead pine needles, much like the environment back in Rice Country.

Unlike Rice country, the smell was different. Very different. It almost smelled like...Konoha. And finally,

What was that weird growl he heard when he got.Wait...was that a groan?

Looking down, Sasuke finally noticed what set his surroundings apart from his usual home...the big, fluffy tuft of bubble gum pink. Pink hair, that is.

-0-0-

Aang stirred as the final vestiges of sleep blurred from his vision and left him wide awake...and ready for the impossible again! Kip up-ing from his sleeping bag on Appa's back, Aang jumped to the ground and took a deep breath, letting it out only after he felt his lungs inflate to the point of boyancy.

Sighing in happiness, he rubbed Appa awake and exclamied cheerfully, "Mornin' boy!"

Appa slowly opened his eyes, blinked at Aang and licked him, eliciting a laugh of joy before he rolled over and went back to sleep, eliciting a groan from Aang and an effort to tug the the ten ton bison awake.

"C'mon boy! It's time to wake up!"

FWUMP

Aang hit the ground as Appa snorted and rolled over, making the ground shake and little animals scurry for cover as their homes were caving in.

Huffing in annoyance, Aang stomped his foot and said, "Fine, if you wanaa sleep in and be lazy, then do it, I don't care."

Appa groaned in happiness at his rider's remark and rolled back over, snoring even louder and blowing a big bubble out his nose, letting it inflate and deflate with every breath, drooling the entire time.

Aang smacked his face and dragged his hand down his eyes, letting it muffle his voice as he muttered, "Be that way, I'll just go and get breakfast then."

And with that, Aang was off on his new mission; get a group of four, a ten ton bison and a lemur, breakfast. Talk about impossible.

-0-0-

Azula was reading the map for the what seemed like the umpteenth time that day when, Mai, being as gracious as ever, stuck her nose in the princess's buuisiness and told her the hard truth.

"We're lost, aren't we Azula?"

Azula clenched her fist and crumpled the map, lighting it on fire as her golden eyes narrowed and glared while she wirled on her friend and growled out, "We are not lost Mai and for your information I know exactly where we are."

"Oh?" Mai asked as she glanced over Azula's shoulder and, looking the princess in the eyes, said, "Then, let's say...for a night outside the tank, could you tell me exactly where we are?"

Azula ground her teeth, as she visibly relaxed, putting a smirk of false confidence on her face as she stated matter of factly, "Well, Mai, for your favorite set of knives, I'll say we are on the trail out from New Ozai all the way to Ba Sing Sai."

Mai arched a delicate eyebrow as she laughed lightly, and, pointing over Azula's head stated, "Well, I hope you like the stars Azula, because that's all you'll be seeing for the rest of tonight."

Whirling around, Azula saw a sign. A big, massive, largley decorated sign. A sign poitning to...

**Water/Earth trade port of the Deep...deep...deep...south. **

Next to the sign, in big, italicized letters was _This way to Ba Sing Sai--- _

...pointing in the completely opposite direction...and to the left.

Burning with a fiery rage, Azula whipped on the giggling Mai and saw her flashing a map in her face...and to add insult to injury, flipped it around to the way it should have been pointed to in the first place.

Grabbing the flimsy piece of paper and flash firing it, she glared at Mai one more good time and turned to leave and prepare her things for...the outdoors tonight when she caught it out of the corner of her eye.

A flash of Orange.

-0-0-

Aang yelped as he almost hit a passing...thing.

_"Whew",_ he thought, "_that was close, and boy was whatever that thin was smoking!"_

And without a further thought on the smoking thing, he blew past the nearby trees swaying a couple of trees and disturbing a few nesting birds along the way.

_"Now, let's see..."_, Anng thought as he said, "What can we eat around here, I'm getting really hungry."

Aang jumped down from the treehe had just bunny hopped down from and felt something begin to constrict around his foot.

A trap.

Falling back and breaking his fall, Aang watched as a rope, hidden in leaves and forest floor barely seconds ago, snapped up and caught his shoe, flapping it in the breeze like a bizarre windsock.

Following the rope, he looked up into the brush to catch a fleeting figure's back, and when he caught his eyes, a deep, dank, blood red caught his stare, with three...beads of water circling his eyes?

Aang kip upped and leapt at a nearby trunk, using the air to corck-screw him up and into a branch nearby the offender with blood thirsty eyes.

"Wait!" Aang called as the boy, who looked to be barely older than him and facial features overshadowed by long, black hair, kept running, apparently spooked by his sudden appearance.

"Wait! I just wanna talk!" yelled Aang as he chased after the raven haired boy who was...turning around?

"Hey you listened! Great! Now, can you te-" Aang started but was suddenly cut off as wires from what seemed to be every angle encircled and enraptured his very body, cutting into his clothes and starting to cut into the softer parts of him, like his ribs and knees.

"Ow! What are ya trying to do to me? Do you know who I am?"

The raven haired boys eyes, now pitch black, looked at him in a confused manner until he cocked his head and said?

"Hm? _Wakarimasu ka?_

Aang, thoroughly confused, shook his head, closed his eyes, and blew air out his ears, blinking and opening his mouth in a big...big...question mark.

The black haired boy, shaking his head and frowning annoyedly, shot out, "_Anata-no namae wa?"_

_Aang, still clearly confused, said "I don't understand what you're saying."_

_Now, the dark haired boy seemed surprised and said, "____Anata wa eigo o hanashimasu ka?"_

Aang sighed and looking annoyed slightly, said, "Look, I have no idea what you're saying, could you please untie me?"

The dark haired boy smirked slightly as he looked up, thinking, and said in perfect english, "Sure." and let the Avatar go. Hard.

"Oof!" Aang breathed out as he hit the tree branch, breaking his fall and looking up at the dark haired boy as he blew himself up, standing about a head shorter of the now docile attacker.

Dusting himself off, Aang bowed to the boy while making the customary dragon and tiger courtesy, smiling the entire time.

"My name's Aang." Aang said as he returned from his slight bow and looked to the other boy, who seemed to be searching for a proper response to the simple gesture.

Putting his hands the completely wrong way, the boy bowed deepley and said, "Uchiko Sasuko of the Uchiko clan, nice to meet you."

The boy had a very clean smile and calming demeanor, all of which felt completely fake to Aang, but then again, he was still being courteous.

"How's it going Uchiko?"

The boy identified as Uchiko tensed, making his body language scream glare but having his eyes sparkle in a definitely fake way, laughng horribly and trying to play off his mistake.

"Sorry, my mistake, Sasuko Uchiko, I forgot that the first and last name were to be switched."

"Ah", Aang, said, laughing nervously at the boy's horrible acting and said, "So, what're you doing out here?"

Sasuko seemed to flash annoyance in his eyes as he looked straight into Aangs and, closing his eyes, opened them to reveal what Aang thought was three circling water drops in his eyes.

Gasping in surprise, Aang fell into a trance as Sasuke smirked and began to make Aang forget ever seeing him. That is, until a female voice drifted from the wind to his ear, making him drop his sharingan and tense, turning just in time to hear"Finally I've found you"

-0-0-

"...Avatar!" bellowed Azula as she chased after the Orange blur known as Aang, the Avatar.

Azula had abandoned the tank and given chase to the orange clad boy, running full speed after him and leaving no time for her friends to decide what to do. It was a game of chase and be chased, and Azula was no push over.

Jumping through the dense underbrush, Azula finally had the orange clad trouble make cornered when, out of no where, he vanished.

Hitting the ground and making a full circle deep into the over passing branches and clumps of leaves, Azula back fisted a nearby tree, not even looking as her friend, Mai, dropped down and stalked up to her side, dropping low and sweeping the low ground as Azula took the high.

"Where's Ty lee?" asked Azula calmly as she spared a glance at her eternally bored friend.

"Back with the tank." she drawled out in her usual fashion. "Someone had to stop and watch the tank when you abandoned ship."

"Right" Azula said as she heard a rustling of leaves and, looking to the source, found a large and probably sharp object being thrown at her face. Fast.

Mai's eyes widened for what seemed to be the first time...well...ever as she launched a throwing knife at the incoming object and defelected it just enough to avoid getting a critical or permanent wound on Azula.

"Ow." Azula stated as the cut on her cheek began to bleed and travel its way down, making a twin trail of red rivers flow down her face and onto the corner of her lips, where she licked it up and wiped the rest off.

Cursing to herself as she watched the orang blur begin to escape her vision, Azula was about to give chase when she was stopped by a most unexpected hand on her shoulder.

"Mai," Azula started, "Just what do you think you'r-" but stopped as soon as she saw the state her friend was in.

"...Mai?"

Azula squinted suspiciously at her her friend, paler than usual, holding what looked to be a peasant farm-hands knife.

"What's wrong Mai?...it's just a Kunai."

But Mai wasn't responding, she was just standing there, looking at the odd contraption like it was the most deadly weapon on earth.

Waving her hand in front of her friends face, she sighed as she noted that she wasn't moving and decided to leave her behind as she took off after her quarry, the Avatar.

To bad too. If she had stayed behind longer, she would have seen Mai break the genjutsu put upon her by the misguiding Kunai and whisper a single word that would have saved Azula a lot of time and trouble.

"...shi...nobi..."

-0-0-

Cornering the boy seemed almost easy now that Mai was gone.

_"Hm...she must have been slowing me down."_ concluded Azula as she chased the boy into a valley that eventually ended in nothing but a a big dead end, which meant end of the line for the...Avatar?

"...Who...are you?" Azula asked curiously as a blonde boy, no older or younger than herself, dressed in so much Orange it hurt her eyes to look, turned around and flashed her a...peace sign?

"The names Uzumaki Naruto, teme, and don't forget it!"

A/N: I'm sorry. I've been caught up in my own crapola lately. I'll try and cahange that.,. Heres hope to another chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I read over the last chap and saw how many mistakes, grammatical and otherwise there were and wanted to gouge my eyes out. Please help me.T-T. Don;t own Avatar or Naruto.

What was that orange...conflaguration doing? It must have been an illusion or something, because _nobodies_ teeth could shine that bright and be natural.

"_What_ did you just say?"

Naruto harumphed and dropped his adopted nice guy pose, opting instead for pouting and dropping to the ground, indian style.

"My name, loser. Can't understand proper language or somethin'?"

Shaking her head clean of the shiny teeth maneuver, she dropped low and shifted forward, relishing in the feeling of lightning race through her veins. Relishing quite greatly in what should have been the smell of burning flesh.

She pushed into her forward stance and shot her fingers out, looking on in perverted glee as her lightning hit...the wall?

Sweeping behind on instinct, she growled in anger as she met nothing but air and a mocking smile.

"Is that all you got, crazy light-ning l-a-d-y?"

"RARH!"

**BOOM!**

Red flames licked out in fury at the boy who could evade her lightning. How could a dufus like him survive this long in a fight with her?

**FWOOM, FWOOM, FWOOM!**

The more she tried, the harder it became as flame after flame simply flew by the arrogant blonde jackass, doing nothing but making him laugh even more and Azula even angrier.

Palm, palm, spinning back kick, round kick, jab, jab, cross, front kick, he just kept dodging everything she threw at him.

A front sweep into an inside crescent and all he did was dodge, why wouldn't he hit back?

"Hahahaha, is that all you got she-bitch, a few flashy kicks and palms? I'm getting bored here!"

That. Was. IT!

Stopping in mid spinning hook, Azula let the boy evade away the last attack as he fell back into a bridge, trying to get a bigger rise out of her. He was enjoying this if the cocky smile was any indication. Now it was time for her to have some fun.

-0-0-

Naruto watched in confusion as the she devil stopped in mid attack, looking for all intents and purposes like she was ready to strangle him. Good thing too, 'cause he was starting to run out of insults!

But the relief suddenly faded as he saw her move into a stance.

"_It almost looks like she's...riding a horse?"_

"Oi! OiOi! What're you doin'? Planning on going for a pony ride or somethin' princess?"

Supreme and utter feminal fury splattered itself across her sharp features as she heard the verbal bitch smack thrown by your's truly, Uzumaki Naruto! But something was off, as our poor pariah would soon figure out. The girl smiled much like Sakura when she was angry, and that usually meant something very painful was about to be dished out. Somewhere between the crown of his head and lower jaw. If he was lucky.

He started to mentally sweat it out, but kept as cool as cool could be with what he had.

"Hey, hey! Hurry it up already, I got stuff to do...people to beat, ya know?"

Naruto knew for sure it would work, if before was any indication.

"Okay, you orange infested idiot."

He smiled, that was easier than he thought! He thought for sure she'd scream and try teeth her way through his right arm socket like that time ero-sennin strapped him with meat and-

...Wait...orange infestood idiot!

"Wha'!? Hey, take that back! I'm not an idiot-you-you-idiot!"

Ha! He got her there. Now to rub it in her face.

"Ha, see, I can dish it out with the-uh oh."

Azula was moving her arms and hands in circles, inwards and down, ever so slowly, making the build up of her energy and fire much more concentrated, but that much painful;y obvious to her blond oponent.

Naruto was on guard now. It wasn't exactly chakra, but something close enough to tell him that whatever she was building up was going to be strong. Time to act. Running as fast and swift as possible, he went for a cross to the face, knowing she was too concentrated to respond to it in kind.

**Fwick. **

A blue flame came and licked out at his sleeve, almost catching the non-flammable material on fire. Looking at the girl in surprise, he noticed the low drop stance and extended palm that was held out in ecstasy as it's owner returned to her actions from before.

"Better do better than that if your thinking of stopping me, you Avatar wanna-be."

Uh oh.

-0-0-

Sasuke re-activated his sharingan and brought the dazed avatar to bear in front of him. He wasn't ready to return to Konoha...to her. He hadn't killed Him yet, and could not afford to become...distracted.

"Sasuke!"

Sakura had tears in her eyes. She wanted to cry, wanted to run up and hug him, kiss him, do anything, but she couldn't do that. Especially not as he took out a spare kunai and held it to the boy's throat.

"Back off...now...you don't want me to kill him do you?"

His cold, tomoe filled eyes bored into hers and started to spin, forcing her to look away from him.

"Sasuke..."

She took a step forward and he took a step back. She sighed and took another step forward, trying to show him she was serious.

Sasuke moved the knife away from Aang's jugualr and instead moved to the side of his neck, pushing down ever so lightly and tracing his neckline, leaving a blood-red line across his neck and toward his throat.

"OW! What are you doing? Are you _TRYING_ to kill me!?"

He was serious too.

Sakura stopped, worry evident in her downcast eyes.

"_Why Sasuke, why won't you come back to me?"_

Sasuke squinted in cold rage at her as she spoke to him in their native tongue. Was she stupid or something? Blind? Was her forehead cutting off circulation to her brain?

"_I told you Sakura, I need to kill Him!"_

He tensed to move, ready to pull out his newly crafted katana when something strange happened. His hostage was gone, and was pressing shoulder blade and lower back in just the right places to keep him from reaching back and stabbing his little heart out.

"Uh uh, Mr. Creepy-eyes, I don't think so."

Miffed at how fast his prisoner escaped, he pushed off from the now hostile boy as he pulled his sword and prepared to attack.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you you can't catch the wind?"

Sasuke blinked. That was faster than he could follow, even though he knew what was about to happen next.

Aang pulled his arms back as far as he could and began to circle from the waist up, pulling from the left to right and shot his hands through his chambers and out into a U-punch, sending a long backlash of wind straight into Sasuke's waiting gut.

**FWOOM** went the soaring sharingan weilder as he crashed into a tree only to happy to catch him.

Sasuke could only stare in interest at the boy before him as he slowly stood up, rubbing his back and shaking loose the kinks. That hurt.

Aang smiled as the older boy vanished from sight and jumped incredibly high towards the trees, trying to make an escape.

"SASUKE!"

Wha'?

"Wha'?" replied Aang dumbly as he looked at the pink haired girl behind him. When did she get here? And as a matter of fact, who was she?

"You know him?" Aang asked.

"Uh, well-yeah. I need to go, excuse me."

Sakura was about to take off after him when the bald little monk boy did something strange. He bent down and patted his back as if he wanted to...give her a lift or something.

"Hop on!", he said jovially.

"uh...no thanks, I need to go."

He appeared before her before she could even blink, making her stumble back in slight surprise, as he encroached way past her personal space.

"C'mon, we can catch up in no time."

Again, he patted his back, and again, she was losing Sasuke.

She looked to the tree line and back to the expectant monk she knew wouldn't leave her alone until she accepted.

"Alright, alright, let's go, but don't do anything stupid."

Jumping on his back and grabbing his neck as tight as possible, which was pretty tight, as the now purple monk figured out, they were off in a flash and a swirl of leaves in pursuit of Sasuke. Hopefully this time it would turn out better than the last.

-0-0-

Naruto was about to Rasengan this girls ass and think about the consequences later 'cause he was tire of getting burned.

He had tried to land a hit on her now for about five minutes straight and got nothing but burned and tattered clothes in response. What was he doing wrong?

He threw a vicious right hook at her head in hopes of knocking the damn headache known as Azula out of his life once and for all, but was countered once again as she ducked and pushed, simply letting him spin to the ground with his own momentum.

"Ow! Why the hell can't I hit you?"

"Your butt."

...huh?, "What? I can't hit you because of my butt?"

"It's on fire."

"..."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! Not my beautiful butt!"

Oh, she was going to pay, definitely.

"Kage Bushin no jutsu!"

Two clones popped into existence, one to guard and one to help. He was still working on the one handed one, you see.

_Fwish, fwish,fwishfwishfwishfwish_.

The clone helped prepare the rasengan and popped out of existence with it's brother as Naruto flexed his hand and got ready to blow that golden eyed menace to hell.

"Let's go sister, I'm tired of this!"

Naruto began to run towards the girl as she finally seemed to finish with her preparation. Breathing as fast and hard as she could force herself, Azula pulled her left fist up and her right leg into a protective crane stance as she threw all her weight into the attack.

**SMACK!** Went Azula's fist as her foot slammed the ground and her fist smacked the open palm of her left hand, causing flames to race outwards in a never ending circle of fire.

"Uh-uh, n-o-t gonna work," said Naruto as he pushed the blue ball of wind in front of him, spinning the fire out and away from him sacrificing some of the spin as it choked on flames.

"_Uh oh," _ thought Naruto, _"I'm gonna need to end this now if I wanna get out of this unscathed. So come on..."_

"BRING IT! RASENGAN!" cried Naruto as the now severely weakened Rasengan, the size of a marble now, flew through Azula's defensive wall and left Naruto to burn.

As the flames overtook him and started to burn his clothes and any exposed skin away, he smiled and took satisfaction in the fact that she seemed mortally surprised that he broke through her flames so easily.

"_Ha," _ he thought, _"I win"._

That being said, he finally started to scream his lungs out before he passed out from the oppressive heat and burned out oxygen.

Azula wasn't much better off.

"_Crap."_ was the last thing she though before the tiny Rasengan broke through her wall of flames and impacted, spinning her three times like a distorted wheel before impacting her against the back wall and knocking her out.

The flames died, leaving a simmering and lobster red Naruto and a knocked out Azula in the wake of a burned circle of death and a glassy like pit. At least, that's what it looked like to the girl who found them not two seconds after.

A/N: Here's the next chap, and I know I suck at updating...oh well.. Hope you enjoyed this.


	5. Chapter 5

A/n: Well, at least I updated.

Disclamier: Don' t own Avatar: the last Air Bender or Naruto

Enjoy.

-0-0-

"Geez Azula, when did you get so heavy!" Ty Lee cried, as she dragged Azula and that...orangey...thing, behind her, struggling all the way. That blond kid must weigh at least twice the weight of Azula.

_'Although...'_ Ty lee thought, looking back at the lobster red blond, who before her very eyes was slowly simmering back to a healthy tan, _'he is kinda cute, Avatar wannabe or not.'_

Turning back to the trail ahead, Ty Lee grunted as she dragged her comrade and prey forward toward the tank, hoping to the gods that help would arrive before then.

"Ty Lee!"

bingo.

Ty Lee dropped the Orange kid hard and Azula easy as she saw her assassin friend, Mai, stumble toward her looking drunk as an ox and hung over like a bear.

"Mai! What happened?" Ty Lee gushed as she ran to her friend and steadied her as best as she could.

Mai, grumbling at the loud intrusiveness of her friend, sighed and rubbed her temple, rubbing away a head-ache she knew would come shortly.

"Later Ty, have you seen Azula and the Guy she was chasin'? That kid dressed in the orange jump suit?"

Ty Lee's face brightened as she hopped in joy and said, "sure Mai, Azula and that guy are-", she started, pointing her hand in the direction of the two"-HEY! Where'd they go?"

Mai, eyes narrowed and head still spinning, noticed a shock of Orange move in the corner of her eye and instinctively threw her own unique kunai, going for a painful, but only temporary collar bone shot. It'd hurt and keep him down for the count, but not permanently.

"Nice to see you too, emo lady!"

Or maybe not.

Looking up, Mai saw what could only be that orange kid, smiling like the cat that ate the canary, holding Azula's limp form with _her_ kunai held to her throat, ready to slit it at any moment.

Well...crap.

-0-0-

Naruto had to think fast, as per usual, to get his foot out his mouth and his ass back in order, but how was he gonna get past that assassin girl? Pulling the kunai closer to Azula, he slowly began to cut into her neck, marking a thin line of red starting from her left ear and going ever so slowly right.

_'This should buy me some time...but not for long.'_, Naruto thought as he watched the acrobat cry out in horror and the assassin start to narrow her already squinted eyes in what could best be assumed was her planning face.

"Stop it! Please! Don't kill her!"

'..._geez, what a drama queen..._and what'll you do to stop me, neh?" Naruto said as he pulled even closer on her neck, getting centimeters closers to his knife's blood-rushing goal.

"Absolutely nothing...", the calculating one said, as if trying to reassure her pink clad friend that she was actually **not** going to do anything. Typical assassin, this one.

The wheels of Naruto's brain were burning rubber in his head as he tried to find a way out past the calculating one without actually having to kill anyone, which was getting trickier and trickier by the moment.

"Look, kid-" the assassin started, "We can both walk out of here without any problems alright? We just want our friend, and you just want to get out of here, right?"

Naruto silently slipped a pair of fingers behind his back to hold off the Kage bushins he had placed there earlier. No need to rush just yet, not while she was wasting air.

Taking his silence as a yes, she continued with her terms. "Drop our friend and you can leave, alright? Just let her down and we can go our separate ways. This was all just a big misunderstanding right?"

Naruto looked from emotionless girl to emotional girl and mentally sighed at the emotional one, for she was welling up with tears already! And Uzumaki Naruto would not hold himself accountable for making an emotional girl cry!

Squinting his eyes and nodding his head, Naruto smiled and said, "Alright, just drop your weapons and we can be on our way."

The emotional wiped her eyes and nodded, looking to the Assassin to make sure she did as commanded. Shrugging, she dropped the kunai hidden in her palm and raised her hands, showing them empty.

"Ah...Ah...A-hhhhhh", chided naruto as he tisked at the bristling girl, "I meant _all_ of them!"

Sighing in annoyance, she shook her sleeves as she dropped what seemed to be a veritable closet rack full of throwing knives and needles into a pile at her feet.

The acrobat's eyes went wide as she saw the pile and said, "Wow, Mai, you've been holding out on me and Azula."

Azula, eh? Hm...

"Alright, here's your girl." Naruto said as he began to pull the knife away from the girl in his arms when...

"OWWWWWWWWWWWW! OUCHOUCHOUCHOUCHOUCH...ouch..."

"Eheh...eheh...eheh..." went the Kage bushin in Naruto's arms as it poofed and showed up as a second Naruto, rubbing at it's neck as a small, minuscule paper cut not even deep enough to penetrate skin or dispel it slowly healed up.

"...WHAT THE HELL MAN! You wimp, it's a paper cut. You were supposed to hold the henge until I got our ass out of the frying pan!"

"Wimp! I'm you, you idiot, so what's that say about us!"

"Ugh, I am not getting into an argument with myself."

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are"

"No, I'm not."

"**Yes,** you are."

"**No,**I'm Not!"

"Yes, YOU-"

_Fwoosh,_went the acorn as it nailed the real Naruto straight in his third eye.

"Ow! What the Hell, you crazy assassin bitch, what the hell was that for!" yelled naruto as he rubbed his head and shook his fit in righteous anger at the ticking bomb known as Mai's temper.

"I couldn't help myself...your fight with yourself was making me stupider."

"..." went Naruto.

"..." went Naruto's clone.

"...**Go to hell**!" they both screamed.

"Oh please, children first." replied a sarcastic voice behind the two.

Turning as one, both were met with a flash of blinding blue light as their 'captive' blinded them and kicked them off the tree into her friends waiting arms...well Ty Lee's, really.

"Wha...how's you get free?" Naruto said, wiping at his eyes as Ty Lee waited for an opening.

"I'm a fire-bender, you dolt. I can burns things, like rope for instance, without even having to squirm an inch."

_'A fire-bendawhat?'_before his vision went black with a funny feeling like he had just been poked near the back of his ear...

-0-0-

_'WHY ME!' _Inner Sakura screamed as Sakura herself held on for dear life as she saw the world pass her by faster than any other time in her life, which was saying something right there.

Aang, only too happy to help and too happy period, ran as fast as he could after that creepy pale scare-crow kid. He was fast, and Aang was never one to turn down a challenge when he saw one.

"How ya doing back there, uh..." Aang called back to his pink haired passenger, not quite fully grasping the idea of asking someone's name before meeting them in a strange situation.

"Sakura," Sakura said, filling in the blank and following up with a "doing fine, just keep going" comment while silently puking in her mind. When you can't let it out...

Aang, smiling, said, "Good, 'cause if we're gonna catch up to your friend, we're gonna need to go a _little_ bit faster."

_'oh no'. "_Alright, I'm ready. Get moving then, if we're gonna catch him, its gotta be now!"

"Alright Sakur-urgh!" Aang said as Sakura used her own energy to pour more strength than she really needed to prove her point.

"Alfright, Safura! Wet's wo!" said a choking-on-his-own-tongue avatar as he pushed his speed to the limit as he pushed his speed to the limit. Too bad he didn't know he didn't have to.

As soon as he hit his Apex, the Avatar and Sakura caught up with their quarry in an open field. Twenty feet in the air.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed the two as they landed in a heap on the ground and jumped off each other as they prepared for what was to come.

"God, you are such an idiot-", "Aang", "-Aang!" screamed Sakura as she glared at the twelve year old who looked like falling without a landing pad was the funnest thing in the world.

"Sakura, it was an accident, honest! How was I supposed to know there was clearing!"

"Look, maybe?" was Sakura's terse reply. This kid was worse than Naruto.

And then it hit her, literally, that she should have been paying attention instead of arguing with an innocent twelve year old. Sasuke had already made the signs for a grand fireball and blew it straight at the two as he attempted to follow up with a pincer behind them when they became too occupied with the ball to cover their rear.

_'shoot.'_, thought Sakura as she hit the ground in front of her at just the right angle to block Sasuke's fireball from hitting both her and Aang. _'Now, where is Sasuke...'_ thought Sakura as she turned just in time to catch Sasuke rearing his fist back for the nastiest right cross she was probably ever gonna feel. Well, that was until a giant wave of air came straight from her monk friends direction and blew him straight over the crest of a nearby hill.

Looking in astonishment at the little boy, she openly stared as she saw the monk twirl a reverse figure eight to get his staff moved back to position by his side.

"Are you okay Sakura?", asked Aang, sincerity laced in innocently asked question."

"Uh..." was her intelligent reply.

"I didn't know you were an earth bender Sakura, that would've made this chase a whole lot easier, ya know?"

_'Earth Bender?'_ Sakura thought. _'What the hell is an earth bender?'_

"Look, I'll call for back up. Hopefully, they'll be here in a few minutes. Do ya think we can hold him off for that long?"

"For a few minutes?",Sakura said, as she saw a black and purple robed blur rush at them from across the hill. Her blood flared as she cracked her knuckles and nodded, knowing that a few was more than easily managed. "Sure Aang, a few minutes is all we need."

"Good.", he replied as he blew into the weirdest whistle she had ever seen. This had better work!

-0-0-

"APPA! Appa, what is it boy, calm down! Katara, get over here, I'm gonna need help with him this time, he going nuts!"

Katara, rolling her eyes at her brothers antics, stopped her stitching job on the pair of pants on her lap and got up to help him. Sighing, she went to Appa to find that indeed, Appa was going crazy. He was thrashing around like he needed to...

"Sokka, it's Aang, Aang must be calling for him.", Katara cried as she jumped on the back, as Toph glared at the stampeding beast with annoyance.

"Yeah Sokka, you'd think you know the warning sign by now."

Grunting, Sokka tried to calm Appa down as Katara and Toph jumped on back ready and raring to go help the Avatar.

"Fine be that way, then I'm not goiiiinnnggggggg!", screamed Sokka as Appa literally rolled his tongue out and grabbed Sokka, taking off with an extremely sickened Sokka and quiet humored Toph and Katara.

_'This better be worth it...ugh...' _thought Sokka as he felt Appa's saliva sink into his clothes.

-0-0-

"Aang, watch out!" yelled out Sakura as Sasuke's fireball came within inches of his Nose."

"Thanks for the head's up!" Yelled Aang as he cross cut and then slid his staff down his hands to follow with an uppercut at the elusive enemy's head.

_'Dodged again! Geez, when will this guy take a hint and just get hit!'_ though Aang as he spun and used his waist to push a wait cross cut faster than needed, hoping to break past this 'Sasuke's' defense and agility. No dice, however.

"Aang, I think back-up is here." said a cut and slightly burned Sakura as she pointed to the sky and pin-pointed a certain trademark flying bison.

"Good c'mon, I know the perfect person to cool this guys' WOAH!" exclaimed Aang as the sound of a thousand chirping birds passed right where his butt had been a second ago. Watching as Sasuke over-extended and blew a good chunk of earth out of the ground and was then engaged by Sakura, Aang took this moment to make sure his luggage was still in order and attached.

_'Good'_, he thought, _'everything's still attached.'_

Just as he said, Appa touched down with his sorely needed back up, and boy was his butt ever so glad.

-0-0-

"So Azula, how did you get past his guard and get him anyway?", asked a curiously inquisitive Mai as she triple checked the shackles on our own personal boy blunder.

"Well," Azula said, smirking all the while, "I simply blew threw the ropes," literally, breathed right over the poor suckers, "tied up his copies with the extra rope and the rest is history."

"So, princess, what do we do with him now? I mean, he really _did_ only attack in self defense."

"Yes Mai, but he still attacked a fire Nation princess so-"

"We can keep him!", exclaimed an exuberant Ty Lee as she ruffled Naruto's hair as he began to disgruntedly wake up.

"...Sure Ty Lee. We can 'keep' him." intoned Azula, looking quizzically at Mai who just shrugged her shoulders in return. She stopped trying to understand some of Ty Lee's quirks a loooooong time ago.

And suddenly, with three pair of eyes on him and realizing these shackles were gonna take a while to crack, Naruto did something seemingly impossible. He agreed on a certain topic with a quite disagreeable Uchiha, who was as of now, being cornered and frozen by a certain T'ai chi chuan master.

_'Well...this sucks.'_ they both thought at the exact same time.

Hope you enjoyed; read and review. That's what got me back on this.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA or Naruto. Enjoy.

"So, where did you say you were from again?"

"...I want you to guess." Replied a disgruntled Naruto as he looked at to-happy-to-be-natural Ty Lee. Intelligence was still intelligence, even if it was useless as of now.

"...Hmmm...I Know! I bet your from...the eastern corner of the the Earth Nation!"

Earth Nation. Check.

"NOPE. Guess again..."

"Aw man." Replied a pouting Ty lee. Lying down in front of Naruto and holding her head in her hands while kicking her legs, Ty Lee tried again.

"Uh...Oh! How about the eastern Fire Nation! They have a few blonds out there...I think."

Fire Nation, eh? Pieces starting clicking together in Naruto's head. She-bitch who had been glaring alternately between him and 'Ty Lee' was a fire-bendamawhoozit. Check.

"NOPE! Guess aga-a-a-aaaaaaain!" Naruto said as annoyingly as possibly. Which is definitely saying something.

"Awwww...why won't you tell me." said Ty Lee as she pushed her forearms arms into her...uh...

"Please?" She almost whispered as she leaned in toward him, pouting cutely all the way. Damn, this was actually starting to get hard. No pun intended.

She took her finger and twirled it on his chest, leaning toward a slowly reddening and very embarrassed Naruto's ear with a smile on her face. What kind of smile it was though...Naruto just did't want to think about!

"I promise not to tell Azalea...as long as you promise to do something..._special_...for me later, Kay?" she practically breathed into his ear. God was this getting much harder than it was supposed to be. Pun intended!

"Well...uh...you see...uh...I'm...from...I can't...say"

"Really?" she giggled a centimeter from his nose, giving him a look that sent violin vibes straight down his spine and right back up like a perverted slinky. Was it getting a little hot in here? F-woo!

"I'm...from...a...village...called...uh-"

Ty Lee looked back to make sure no one was watching and, when she knew it was clear, practically saddled up on poor Naruto and started to rake her hand through his hair like an expert. Damn what she could do with her hands!

"Uh..wellmaybe I can s-s-s-say...village...of-of-of-FIRE!" Naruto practically yelled as Ty Lee's hand went from his hair to his back to his-

"Ty Lee!"

Ty Lee practically glared at the connecting open door as she dis-mounted from Naruto and swayed all the way to the origin of the voice, watching amusedly as Naruto did the same.

Mai poked her head through the door and, seeing the look on Ty Lee's face and then Naruto's, sighed and said, "Ty Lee, Azula said stop molesting the prisoner and come see her."

"Really?"

"No, but she did say come and see her."

Sighing, she shook her head and left, winking at Naruto as the door slowly closed behind her.

_'...damnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! That was like a scene out of ero sannin's books!'_ thought a heavily thought muddled Naruto. _'and I hate to say it but I don't think I would've minded if I went to page 7!'._Shrugging his shoulders in a physical show of a mental 'meh', Naruto looked around the room, thinking of how he was going to escape.

_'Well,' _he thought, _'first lets get out of these-...oh.' _

Naruto discovered he had a certain problem residing a little south of the equator that was making moving a little difficult.

_'well...ignore it and it'll go away. Just like old times!'_

It started to work...for about ten seconds.

_'Aw man...now what! Well I could always go to the bathroom-...oh, yeah.'_

He was still chained up and if he was going to go, he'd have to ask one of the ladies on an all female crew, which would be extremely embarrassing and could lead to devastating consequences. So...what to do?

_'...Ero-sennin dancing in a tu-tu, 'cause that's definitely not hot!'_

...no dice.

_'uh...Sasuke in a frog suit?_

This was gonna take a while.

-0-0-

"So, Ty Lee, did you find out anything useful from that orange clad fiend?"

Ty Lee giggled as she ran her hand through her hair saying, "Sure Azula, I found out he's from the fire village!"

"...are you serious?" Azula said as she quirked a malignant eyebrow in annoyance.

"...well...yeah..I mean, I was on a roll until you guys interrupted."

Mai rolled her eyes as she said, "All we heard from that room in an hour of interrogation that held any importance was 'guess again! Heheheh' and 'FIRE!', Ty Lee.

"Well, it was getting hot in there." Said Ty Lee as she shrugged her shoulders non-nonchalantly.

"..."

Azula sighed disgustedly as she covered her eyes and shook her head, pointing toward the room Naruto was in. "Go. Now."

"Okay!" said Ty Lee happily. It was as if that was the best thing in the world Azula could have said to her!

The last thing Mai And Azula heard before the door shut with a deafening click was, "Wow Naruto, is that a kunai or are you just happy to see me!"

-0-0-

"So Sakura, you say this...Sasuke, is your ex-team mate who betrayed your village and left you guys out in the cold and hard up for a replacement eventually leaving you and this 'Naruto' to split up finding new teachers so you could become more powerful in the hopes of being able to bring him back to your home one day?" said Aang not even taking a breath. Hm. The wonders of being an airbender.

"Yup, that's pretty much it Aang."

"Well, I say we leave him for the moose-lion, if you ask me." said Sokka proudly, completely ignoring the withering looks he got from Sakura and his sister. Although his head was starting to itch where that blind folded Sasuke kid was glaring at him.

"Well it's a good thing no one asked then, isn't it Sokka?" Replied Katara witheringly. Good thing this warrior was used to the cold though.

"Yeah, well maybe that's because you all know I'm the brains of this operation and you just wanted to get the answer without having to ask me."

Five pairs of eyes leveled their glares in his direction, causing him to feel just a little scared. Plus it was starting to get a little arctic at his place near the fire.

"Actually, I was thinking that if Sakura and Sasuke are here, then maybe Naruto is too." said Katara.

Sakura actually brightened at the thought of that and quickly nodded her assent, seeing how it was just as plausible as people being able to bend the elements surrounding them.

"Do you think so too, Aang?" said Katara, looking over to the Avatar to see if he agreed.

"Well yeah, I mean, it sounds like it's possible. If these two are here, then Naruto must be close too! I mean, the world is a small place when you have a flying bison, ain't that right buddy?" said Aang turning to Appa as he licked him from head to toe, making Aang laugh.

Sakura paused to think at the point and froze. She still didn't know where they were or how they ended up there, much less why she appeared with Sasuke and not Naruto.

"Uh, say Aang..."

"Yeah Sakura?" replied Aang as his laughs slowly subsided, giving her his undivided attention.

"Well...where exactly are we?"

Aang looked at her confused and said, "Eastern side of the Earth Nation, by the ports, why do you ask? Didn't you know?"

Sakura laughed and patted her seat saying" Yeah, 'course, I just got a little lost, what with the battle and then the flight over."

"Hey, 'Sakumo'?" said Toph, speaking up for the first time since they saw her.

"'Sakura',...uh-, "Toph", "-Toph" replied a ticking Sakura at being intercepted by Aang again, didn't this kid have anything better to do?

"Yeah, that's what I meant, cotton queen, just one question."

Inwardly steaming at the insult but showing nothing but a smile, Sakura said, "Well, sure, fire away."

Toph smirked, she fell way too easily into this trap. "With all the running and fighting n' everything, we never actually found out where you guys are from!" _'cue horribly faked laugh'_ thought Toph and then..."So where are you from, I heard you earth bend but I didn't sense you using any common earth bending styles I know of."

_'Uh oh,'_ thought Sakura, _'what do I say!? Well, let's see...elements are able to be manipulated here to a much greater degree than at home, and warriors here tend to stick with one element, leaving them with a unique style used only by them.'_

She continued to think at ten thoughts a second, trying to come up with an answer in three.

_'Alright, so theres an earth nation and a fire nation if Sokka's angry muttering about Sasuke proves anything, and a water nation, if Katara's any indication with an air nation close behind, but what about wood, and metal? I know I'm missing something! C'mon Sakura!'_

Toph was looking at her expectantly, waiting for an answer as patiently as she could. In other words, she had half a second, and Sakura knew that.

_'Alright, well then, I guess I'll go with what I'm most comfortable with-'_

Putting on her million watt smile, Sakura giggled and said, "Sorry Toph, I guess I was being a little hurried back there, your right." Pushing her hair bend her ear and looking up to the sky to avoid anyone reading them, Sakura nodded once to assure herself of her lie and then tried to get it out as non-nonchalantly as possible.

"I'm from the-"

"Fire Nation."

Sakura swore her heart stopped for a second as Sasuke said that lie with out even shifting. She was gonna say Earth nation, the dolt!

Sokka visibly sputtered at the news out the corner of her eye and stammered out a, "Wh-wh-what! Fire Nation?"

"Did I stutter, you blithering idiot?", Sasuke delivered to the now foaming-at-the-mouth Sokka. How come he was always the idiot!?

Sokka was scrambling for his club as Aang and Katara held him back, trying to calm him down. Maybe they should just get some cold water, or Toph?_'Both would probably do the job gladly'_ thought Katara tiredly.

"I'll show you idiot, you-you-you idiot!" yelled Sokka as he struggle vainly between his friend and sister. He was gonna get a piece of that Fire nation Pansy, uh huh!

"Look," Katara, said, "Just calm down Sokka, I'm sure there's a good explanation, right Sakura? I mean, the only guy who was using fire in that battle was Sasuke, who's now tied up. I mean, we all also agree that Sakura,", Katara emphasized this by pointing straight at a now very nervous Sakura, "used only Earth bending in that battle, right?"

"That's the thing, Sugar Queen, I'm not so sure she is." Piped up Toph, for the second time that evening. "You see, all of us who bend have this...I don't know...stuff in them, that tells us apart from non-benders. And this girl doesn't have it."

Katara looked at Toph, with a half questioning/half argumentative glance that spoke volumes of absolutely nothing to the blind bender.

"Can you prove that Toph? I mean, I know your sensitive to a lot of things we aren't, but really," she once again looked to the nervous Sakura for emphasis, "We all _saw _Sakura bend the Earth, Toph, even you agreed on that."

Instead of trying to force the point, Toph just emphasized her own by hitting her standing horse and throwing a quick forward palm at Sakura, pushing the Earth up and out in a V formation.

"Toph!" Yelled out an angered Katara

_'Just wait for it Katara and...'_ Sakura played right into her hand when, instead of just bending the Earth out of her way, she blew straight through it with her _fists_ of all things, I mean really!

"See Sugar Queen, she didn't bend through that, she blasted through that! What now, huh?_"_

Katara looked at Sakura with wide eyes and looked at the rubble strewn about. "Sakura...just...how..."

Sakura now had less than a second to think of something really smart really fast.

"Uh...I, uh, I come from the mountains in the North where I had no teacher! I had to teach myself, and really, do I look like fire nation to you, I mean look, I have _pink _hair. And green eyes same as Tophs'!" Sakura inwardly sighed in relief at the shocked look on Tophs face, thinking it was in shock of her un-warranted attack on her. Too bad she didn't know Toph was blind and had no idea what the color green was. Oh well.

"And well, I don't have energy like the rest of you because I'm the first...uh...bender from my village. The elders still don't know how it happened! And me and Sasuke are just really good friends because when my village was-uh-taken over and our families became friends we became friends too and we are just _sooooooooo_ close.Ha ha ha ha...ha...heh...".

_'Dear God that was the worst lie you have ever told, way to go on the rambling Sakura, now your screwed for sure!' _She mentally sighed and just prayed for the best _'H__opefully nobody caught on.' _thought Sakura._'...Are there even any mountain in the North?' _added Sakura.

Apparently there were, for Toph, after a moments consideration, nodded her assent to the group and said, "Alright, guess she ain't lying then."

Sakura mentally put that parcel of information away for consideration after the group collectively breathed out a sigh of relief and went back to sitting around the fire, waiting for Sakura to join them again. Sakura gladly did so and was fully intent on starting to plan out how she was gonna figure out where the hell she was when she felt something squirm past her foot.

Looking down, she saw something very strange happening, something she had never seen before. There were letters being drawn intio the ground from some uknown source. Too bad she had no idea what it said.

Shaking her head in befuddlement, Sakura saw it dissapear and in it's place another set of letters pop up, this, a little closer to the kanji she was used to but still, just out of her readable reach. Shaking her head again, the Earth paused and then the letters dissapeard angrily, this time an arrow pointing towards the edge of the clearing they were in and five lines were drawn up, with a check after that.

_'oh,'_, thought Sakura, _'edge of the clearing in five hours. Got it.'_ This time, Sakura nodded her head in agreement and stomped her foot, showing her asent. The earth then faded away as Sakura looked up to see Katara about to ask her a question for the fifth time and walking over to see if she was okay.

"Yeah what's up Katara?"

"No, you just look a little underweather, are you okay? I know it's been a long day."

Sakura was shocked to see it was almost sun-down; where had the day gone?

"Geez, you're right Katara, I am a little tired. You mind if you take the first shift watching Sasuke?"

"Sure Sakura, I know a girls need a little Beauty sleep.", Katara said, giggling.

"Oh, and what about me Sugar Queen, don't I need my beauty sleep too?"

"You know Toph," Sokka started, "I don't think you count as a girl."

Silence. And then, "Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," yelled an ever shrinking Sokka as Toph brought her heel back up.

Sakura winced as she saw the ever too familiar path and winced and in appreciation. _'Oh, well, he had that coming.', _she thought._ 'Now it looks like all I gotta do is wait for those five hours to come up and we'll see what it's all about. Prally Aang over something weird' _she thought tiredly as she slipped into the guest sack Katara had lent her and fell lightly asleep.

Toph made sure she fell asleep too before she let an evil smirk pass her face. She always made sure to get to know new people in the group, especially the bad liars.

A/N: I tried, what can I say? I know the Sakura and Sasuke parts are boring, but that's what Naruto's there for, he makes this story and his horrible jokes worth while. R n' R if you like.


	7. Chapter 7

"So, fire bit-"

"It's Azula, peasant."

"...So, fire bit-"

"Azula."

"Fire bi-"

"Azula."

Azula got this tick under her, kinda like watching the clock tick down on a rocket about to lift off for the moon.

"Fire b-"

"It's Azula, peasant, and if you utter that infernal word one more time I will be forced to light your ass from here to the moon. Are we clear?"

Naruto seemed to consider this for a moment before he nodded once and said, "Yosh! Ok, Azula-"

Azula smiled in what seemed a relieved smile. Almost anyway.

"bitch."

...3...2...1...liftoff, Azula to base, Azula 1 has taken off and is in the correct flight path.

WAM! Went Naruto as fires as red as the pit of hell itself burned from her eyes while Azula herself leaped to a horse stance and proceeded to begin the preparations for lightning. Good thing it was a clear and sunny day with no weathermen around to tell of clear skies and no chance of rain. A good day to die, Naruto supposed. Especially without the weathermen. Lying bastards.

"Azula! Hold up Azula, he's a prisoner for the fire lord! We can't go burning our prisoner to the royal family-your father- to a crisp, can we?"

Azula's eyes, still burning with righteous anger, looked straight at Ty Lee and said without a hitch, "I don't think dear daddy will mind if his prisoner is a little tender crispy. What do you think Mai?"

Mai just looked at her nails in a bored fashion, wondering whether or not to answer her princess's question with an abrupt answer(leave Naruto out to dry) or an articulate one(burn that blond haired overly energetic quite insulting and rather rude ninja the same color as his jacket.)

"I don't know Azula, I guess you should just let Ty Lee have a new pet. That should be punishment enough."

Naruto actually shivered at the thought of being alone with that girl for longer than necessary. Sure she was cute and all, but she was so bubbly that it was like being boiled from the outside in. Plus everytime he saw her, it was like looking at him, only as a girl. Who was obsessed with pink. And Naruto was not a pink-tard!

"That's okay, I'd rather prefer to be burnt to an orange crisp, thank you very much."

Ty Lee pouted and somewhere in the world, a kitten died. Good thing Naruto hated cats! Damn furballs...

Azula smirked as that red, fiery rage was instead replaced with a mildly interested look when she gazed with what seemed like...a sick sort of happiness upon his shackled form.

"I know...we could just...oh, I don't know, let him sleep outside tonight. I'm sure he'll start to co-operate a little more easily after that. How does that sound girls?"

Both girls nodded, more than happy to show Naruto just how hospitable they were being towards his blond ass. Well, as hospitable as one can get while holding said guest hostage. Oh well.

And with their party in said agreement, all three girls happily gave Naruto the boot into the cold, unforgiving night of the Earth Kingdoms most dangerous lands.

The western provincial mountains.

-0-0-

Sakura shivered as she showed up at the designated spot for her midnight meeting with the sand scrawler. Sure, they finally got the time set up, but where the hell was he/she? Sakura wanted nothing more right now than to just curl up and die in her sleeping bag, so she could wake up warm and overly toasty. Ah, the pure awesomeness of a good sleeping bag.

"Hey, fluff n' stuff, what took you so long?"

_'Fl-fluff n' stuff?...' _

"You. Are. **Dead." **ground out Sakura as she twisted with a punch aimed directly at the little boulder known as Toph.

Toph, being Toph of course, 'saw' the punch and lifted a wall up with an open palm facing downwards, ready to stab out with finger wide slabs if need be.

"What, tryin' to kill the carrier or something? It's not my fault if I just wanted to see what the worst liar in the world was doing with my friends."

_Worst liar in the world? Make her the worst stuffed animal in the world!_

"What do you mean Toph? Worst Liar? I haven't lied!"

"You have." Toph said smugly, "I sniffed out your lies faster than a wolf-retriever on the tail of a platypus-bear."

_Seriously, who came up with these animals? Moegi? _

"So then, what did I do wrong, Toph? How'd you know?". _ Best to learn how she knows now, if she is telling truth, rather than later_ she thought.

She smirked. "It's all in your heart Sakura, at least, it's in your pulse. When you lie, your pulse quickens, telling me your not telling the truth. My blindness let's me see a few eternal truths, you catch my drift"?

Sakura did, and it was very interesting and intriguing idea. She remembered Tsunade shishou mentioning it to Ibiki when she had been training and let her over hear their conversation. If she could put these methods into her medical diagnoses or chakra application.

"Yo, Sakura."

"Hm, Toph?" she was too preoccupied with this development, and knew she should focus more now. She shook her mind to clear her thoughts.

"You gonna tell me what you were lyin' about yet, or what?"

"Maybe if you learn some manners, pipsqueak."

_Pipsqueak. _"Pipsqueak." Something started to bend in Toph, and it sure wasn't rock, you know what I'm saying.

"Yeah, what do you want to know."?

She took a deep breath, and sighed. Pipsqueak. Oh, it's on.

"Well, air head, I was simply wondering where you actually come from. I mean really, some abandoned earth village? I seen mouse squirrels that have dropped less crap than that."

_She makes that sound like an accomplishment. Ew. _"Well, I thinks that's probably because we aren't exactly from around here."

Toph, sensing Sakura's pulse slow and body relax, realized this was going to be a long story. Dang. So, she bended herself a small plateau using her heel and did the same for Sakura. Might as well get comfortable.

-0-0-

"So," started Mai as she began her shift. Her long, definitely boring shift. A shift so boring that some gods from the past must have presented as punishment to people like her for the specific reason of it being so boring. "I didn't;t know that shinobi still existed in the region of the world."

Naruto, at being called on his chosen profession, decided to lie. Through his ass of course, since he's Uzumaki Naruto, and is awesome like that. Yeah.

"Well, who the hell says I'm a shinoti"?

All of a sudden one of Mai's custom Kunai implanted itself in front of Naruto's face which was resting on a knarley old tree trunk.

"You make a valid point, she-bitch."

"I didn't know that shinobi still existed in the region of the world."

"Well, that's because I guess they don't."

"What? That makes no sense, I've seen how you move, the weapons you use, even your fighting style. All point to that of several organizations of Shinobi I've seen employed."

"Well then, why not tell me where I'm from"?

"Ha-Ha, nice try, not tell me."

Naruto frowned, as if mentally slapped in a verbal bout. "Aw, but I thought Ladies always go first. What are you, a man in women's clothes then? A-ha-ha-HA! Oh, that was good!"

Bellowed Naruto as he laughed at his own joke. That was awesome!

Fwip.

A piece of Naruto's hair fell and, unfortunately landed in his eye.

"Damn, you suck!" yelled Naruto as he furiously tried to get the eyelash out of his eye without the use of his hands. Safe to say, he was failing miserably.

"Well, I don;t like to torture people like Azula, and really, I find it mostly unnecessary and boring. There are much easier ways to get the information you want."

With this she waltzed over to Naruto and slowly keeled going eye to with him as she stared, unblinking, into his eyes.

"What clan are you with. Who is your leader. What kind of assassination do you specialize in."

Naruto blinked furiously and decided to answer with half truths."I hate clans. My leader is my grandma. I don't assassinate people."

Fwip.

Another piece of hair blew down from the top of his head and almost landed in his eye. Good thing he just blew some air up and blew it away from his other eye."

"I know how to contact your technique now, idiot."

Fwip. SLAP!

Naruto could do nothing as she clamped her hand on his mouth and let the hair go into his eye. That was, until he closed his eyes. He is such a genius!

Mai sighed, this detail just got a whole lot more annoying.

-0-0-

Sasuke 'looked' up as he wondered when Toph and Sakura would be back. From what he could gather, people around here tried to stay close, for walking away alone meant something that none of them was willing to risk. He was gonna have to test that theory and find out what it meant at some point, but for now, he needed to figure out what the hell was going to happen to him.

Being cold and analytical, like all good Uchiha, Sasuke realized he had several options and several answers waiting for him as of right now to review.

For one, he definitely wasn't in Konoha anymore. Everything here was different, from the sounds, to the wildlife, to even the air. There was even a strange energy here that they didn't have back home, which he would need to investigate later if he hoped to understand where he was. He couldn't use it, but still...

Two, he was in a place where his brother definitely didn't exist, where Orochimaru held no sway, and shinobi seemed to play minor roles instead of major ones. This could aid him immensely in his crusade for power, not to mention help him keep a low profile.

Three, there wasn't chakra here. Well, not in his sense of the word, that much he was sure of. That meant that these, 'bending' abilities were more family or clan based than actually activation based. So, not everyone here could learn to fight with the elements.

And four, if Sakura was here, then Naruto was here. Here was where he seemed to be divided. He had tried to kill him emotions concerning his friends, but now that he was back with Sakura, he felt his old feelings returning. He couldn't, under any circumstances, allow that to happen. He needed to hate life, detest it, kill all his responsibilities except those pertaining to power so that he may ultimately crush his brother without the use of the Mangekyou Sharingan, and they were going to make his quest for that that much harder. But, he was also a stranger in an even stranger land. He needed allies, and Sakura and Naruto were those allies, so, what should he do?

These questions kept running through his head as he tried to contemplate just what to do. On the one hand, he could reunite with the rest of team seven, and be able to safely and effectively know that he could always count on some one to have his back. But, that also meant that he couldn';t just run off on his own and run his own show, and that was disconcerting to him, what should he do? Hew wanted freedom, but he also need to know he wasn't going to get his throat slit because he didn't take a right instead of a left. He needed to contemplate on this more. But, maybe later, Sakura and Toph were coming back.

Pretending to be sleeping as best as a man in shackles can sleep, he focused on his hearing and tried to block out all ambient noises to listen to their conversation.

"...their world? I still find that hard to believe."

"You need another demonstration?" Whispered Sakura back as Toph and her walked back to camp. Was that dripping?

"No, I don't need to see you blast me with fire and then douse me with water. But, if you would like me to beat you to a pulp again for said dousing, then please, lets."

"In your dreams pipsqueak."

"Cotton queen."

"Garden gnome"

"fluff ball."

"cotton ball."

"...touche."

...On second thought, maybe he should just go to sleep. Getting stupider just by listening to a conversation was not on his to do list today.

"But seriously, Crakura?"

"Chakra."

"That's really cool. Is it anything like Chi?"

"I suppose, but, well, you have to feel it to believe it. What about chi."

"...right back at ya."

"Hm."

Sasuke frowned, did Sakura spill everything. Was she a shinobi or a 24 hot line for their national secrets? If she spilled everything then...

"So, that guy, Sasuke...he really left your country for more power? He betrayed you, just so he could become powerful enough to kill his brother?"

"...Yeah, but me and Naruto...we can't blame him."

What?

"What? Why not?"

"Yeah, why the hell not, he would sure as hell blame them, if either of them did what he did. He didn't want forgiveness, not did he seek it. Such was not the path of an avenger. A monster.

"Because...we love him."

...

Not because of you know, his abilities, but because he's our friend, in Naruto's case, his Brother. Naruto had to grow up without a family, and Sasuke had to see his die because of his brother. Both of them are training to be the best they can be. But for very different reasons."

_you know, she's right._ How can she presume so much?

"Because Sasuke wants to avenge his family and Naruto wants to be accepted?"

"Yeah."

"...I like Sasuke's reason a lot better, it's not half as gay."

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that, Toph."

"Duly noted." she said as tromped off with her back to her to her earth tent.

"Hey Toph..."

"Yeah cotton queen?"

"Our little secret right?"

Sasuke didn't need to see the smile to know it was there.

"Yeah, Sakura, our little secret."

With that said, Toph closed the door to her tent and Sakura once again sat in front of Sasuke, taking her shift to watch him.

Sasuke realized he now had a lot more to think about.

-0-0-

Naruto tried to ignore the blinding pain in his eyes, but try as he might, it was nigh impossible. That hair of his was really damn annoying!

"So you orange bore and plain eyesore, you ready to talk yet."

"That...ugh...rhymed, she bitch!"

Mai had to just stop and wonder how the hell Naruto could even speak a known language, much less know how to speak, being as stupid as he is.

"I'm gonna give you one more chance, then I'm gonna go inside the tank and let you die a hopefully painful death. Now, What clan are you with. Who is your leader. What kind of assassination do you specialize in."

"Go...to...hell!" he screamed unnecessarily. He was going to cut his hair, it was official. Never again would he be tortured like this!

"Fine."

With that simple word she was going to go into the tank to watch him suffer from the comfort of bed when something unexpected happened.

A moose lion appeared, and apparently, didn't realize they were there.

A/N: I've been busy with MA. Leave me alone. Blame octavias for this getting out sometime this year. See you next time.


End file.
